Attempting to get a yearly family photo for a Christmas card is basically the hardest thing ever. Last year we waited last minute to take photos because we just moved across the country, and it was sort of the last thing on our minds. Most of our friends and family received them a few days after Christmas. But, not this year! We have started a new tradition to take photos during the month of November and hopefully within 30 day deadline...we can getter' done.
Conversations with Tony: November 1st
[ME] "Babe, what theme do you want to do for our Christmas cards this year? Cloths? Background?
[Tony] "Look here sexy thang...we have 30 days to get our s*** together. Let's not nuke it this year. Make it simple and cheap.
This year Tony thought of simple and I thought of sweaters, ugly sweaters to be exact. So we decided to make it the ugly sweater year. Pulled out our sweaters from storage. Showing off our cute smiling boy who is growing like weeds! Yeeeeeeeah... We honestly took no fewer than 200 photos (Lesson #1: Quantity begets quality) with no edits and some terrible quality shots over a span of an hour and a half (complete with snack breaks for Mesias). And we got ONE good one. Right at the very end. But all was not lost! That means we had tons of amazing outtakes. Here, friends, is the story of our Christmas card fail.
I'll save the top left for last towards the end. Starting with Mesias looking all cute holding the fakest award winning smile. He was not having it. Bright and early in the morning. Trying to prepare a toddler for what is about to happen on the way to the photo shoot, instead of prepping at least a couple of hours before, yet alone the night before. I seriously thought he was going to enjoy taking photos in the morning...
Lesson #2: Cut the cheese.
Who created these say 'Cheese' commands? — Talk about an authentic snapshot...Yeeeaaah. If you think about it, we teach our children to make very strange smiles that don't really capture who they are.
Look at those curls! I think we ended up taking more photos of him.
Lesson #4: Try not to negotiate. As awesome parents, we went from asking him nicely to put down his hands for mickey mouse....to negotiating eating ice cream after we finish taking pictures. Did he go for it...
I think NOT! After taking so many photos I was so done. Saved the best for last. I saw this one and was like, "We have a winner." This one goes to all our lovely friends and family. But...
Tony says lets take one more. Fewer than 200 shots later, this one was our favorite and turned out to be very nice.
I actually prepared myself with knowing it was going to be hard to get a decent photo of all of us. I mean, we're all decent looking, you'd think we'd be more photogenic. But dang, that Christmas card pic struggle was real. 2016 will be the year to remember our family Christmas cards fail.
Do you have any tips or secrets for taking photos for a special occasion with smaller children? We would love to see your funny Christmas card fails.
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